As I’m finishing my Levinas chapter, I’m feeling how hard it is to apply his ethics to academic writing–at least my academic writing. I am so used to using the plural, collective pronouns: we and us, that it feels disorienting to use I and me. But I do believe it turns me into a more naked, and thus, more ethical voice. It prevents me from climbing the mountain.
Of course, to those unfamiliar with Levinas, it leaves me exposed. This is Levinas’ point–to always write as exposed, to invite the response, to risk the worst. But for someone accustomed to writing with confidence, as the authority, it is odd–in a very affective way–to offer rather than expound, to posit rather than claim, to say rather than tell.
